Doctor's Husband

Big Kid is a saver, not a spender. He hoards every dollar, putting it in his money pouch, counting after every addition. He's got about $75 right now.

"What are you saving for?" I always ask. He never has an answer.

But the other day he asked me, "Do you know why I save all of my money?"

"Why?"

"For college," he said with a sweet, shy smile.

"College?!? Wow! What a good boy you are. Daddy and I put money aside every month so you can go to college, though. We're going to try to pay for that for you."

"Yeah but college is expensive, mom. I can't let you pay for the whole thing!"

"That's seriously like the sweetest thing I've ever heard, but you can spend your money on something nice if you want! We'll handle college, really."

"Well then, I'm saving it to buy myself something nice when I'm in college. Just in case."

Knowing Big Kid, he'll probably be driving a Bentley by the time he's in college.

And I'll wish I'd let him pay for college himself.

Poor guy has a sensitive stomach (a sensitive everything, really) and was cringing and pale the other day when I was telling little kid the story of how I got stitches when I was a little girl.

"MOM!! I never want to hear you say the word 'stitches' ever again. I can't handle it. I just wanna barf right now."

"Big Kid, you better marry a girl with a strong stomach or you're going to have a hard time when you're a daddy. Hey, you should marry a doctor! That would be great, then you could trust her to take care of you and your children's health and she could deal with sick and yucky stuff."

He thought about that from the back seat. "Yeah," he said hesitantly, "How would that work though?"

"What do you mean?"

"Will my wife already have a job when I marry her? Can you just marry a doctor or do I meet a girl and hope she wants to be a doctor? Do you get married before college? Does everyone's parents pay for college?"

I could almost see him calculating the student loan costs of a medical degree in his 7 year old head.

"You get married after college, after you have a job and when she's already a doctor."

"Good idea. I'm gonna do that."